Friday, March 15, 2013

How to Succeed in Sudden Business Growth

It's Friday morning ... coffee time. I decided this morning to pour my Joe into a "love" cup made by my nine-year-old daughter. A little morning jumpstart with some love ... works for me. So business here at 3L Publishing is booming. Now I am super, super happy and over the moon about the business. Now I have to deliver. You can't sell without delivering what you sell, right? With so much work coming in so fast, we're in a rapid growth curve. Now I could 1. panic 2. fret or 3. get organized. I choose #3. How do you manage a lot of work at once? I have some great tips to share with all you busy managers and executives. Here is why people ask me, "How do you get so much done?"

Step 1: Get real! Yes, get real about what you CAN actually manage. Don't look at the moon, realize it's really thousands of stars, and then panic. Get real with your responsibilities and work load. Don't shirk those things that MUST be done to grow your company (in my case) and drop them in favor of the huge work load. So get real!!

Step 2: Delegate! Oh, now I can hear the solo-preneurs out there making self-limiting commentaries that always run like this: "I am happy being this size company." They will turn away work versus figuring out how to delegate and hire contractors or employees. I have something I want to tell you! Did you know this simple law: If you're not growing you're shrinking! My question to you: do you want to grow and make more money or shrink and make less? Look at your workload, look at your resources, and delegate the parts you either are not skilled at doing or could pay someone less to do and make money to keep doing what you're doing to make money.

Step 3: Get organized! Now it's time to either find a project manager or just get organized. The tighter the organization, the more effective the engine! If you have a lot of new work and existing projects coming in -- it's time to get out the spreadsheet and whiteboard. It's time to organize it and track project progress. You want to make sure you know each project and where it is in progress. You also want to do this for sales leads for future follow-up (for great follow-up techniques, purchase a copy of Fortune is in the Follow-Up by Heidi BK Sloss available on the 3L website, www.3LPublishing.com, or Amazon.

Step 4: Chunk into manageable routines and goals. You want to have routines and daily lists to accomplish. For me since I'm the CEO and essentially chief marketer, too; I typically have marketing routines that I do on a daily and weekly basis. For example, I blog daily, post on social media daily, write weekly articles for Writers Who Mean Business on Meetup.com, write my weekly newsletter First Word, and host a bi-weekly radio show titled First Word Radio. Each marketing exercise is part of a weekly routine. For the books, I have daily goals or tasks. I break books down into incremental and doable daily goals. I write down my daily goals. And I rotate the projects so that each one has a certain amount of time devoted to it to accomplish the goal.

We all have our favorite characters we love to root for whether in fiction or on TV or film. So, I thought I would share my short list of my...

Body in the Trunk

A New Novel by Michelle Gamble

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About Me

I am a publisher, author, produced screenwriter and outspoken funny girl. You never know what I'm going to say on this blog. Could be straightforward and serious, or it could be cheeky and funny -- it all depends on what's on my mind. If something sounds "off," it's more likely said tongue-in-cheek than serious.
I like nothing better than to crack up, and when I'm working to crack myself up! Life's too short to take it seriously. Authors who work with me always have a good time. You will never find anything conservative or boring around here! Visit my website at www.3LPublishing.com.
I am publishing a new book very soon titled Body in the Trunk. Look for a winter 2014 release.